Field Book Project

Smithsonian Institution Archives receives Funding for Digitization

The Smithsonian Institution Archives (SIA) received a grant of $22,000 from the Smithsonian Women’s Committee (SWC). The award will fund two graduate paper conservation interns and two digitization interns who will work during summer 2012 to conserve and digitize original 19th and early 20th century scientific field expedition notebooks located at the Archives and in the National Museum of Natural History. This funding marks an important milestone for the Field Book Project.

SWC Grants Committee Chair Pat Fiske recently announced funding for 18 grants, totaling $367,898, supporting a broad range of projects and activities within the Smithsonian Institution.  Net proceeds from the Smithsonian Craft Show, along with earnings from the fall Craft2Wear event, provides the funding for these initiatives through the SWC’s annual grants program.  The 30th Anniversary Smithsonian Craft Show, which will help fund the 2013 grant cycle, takes place April 19 – April 22, 2012 at the National Building Museum.

Mary Agnes Chase goes to Brazil (and Flickr)

By Lesley Parilla, Field Book Project

SIA2009-4227. Photograph taken during Mary Agnes Chase’s field work on Pico das Agulhas Negras in Itatiaia National Park [Parque Nacional de Itatiáia], in Brazil.

The Field Book Project has made of a point of posting quarterly flickr sets, to highlight some of the great hidden treasures we catalog. In the honor of Women’s History Month, I would like to announce our newest set, featuring images of Mary Agnes Chase and her field work.

During the 1920’s and 30’s Mary Agnes Chase conducted field work in the mountains of Brazil collecting grasses now housed in the Department of Botany Herbarium, National Museum of Natural History. Much of her time in the field is documented in correspondence to A. S. Hitchcock and photograph albums she compiled that are now part of Smithsonian Institution Archives Record Unit 229 and Mary Agnes Chase Field Books, 1906-1959 in the National Museum of Natural History, Department of Botany. During her time in Brazil, Chase wrote to Hitchcock discussing challenges, progress, and observations of local life. Chase was a woman of strong opinions and wit, as you will see in the quotes shared below.

 SIA2009-4229. Photograph taken during Mary Agnes Chase’s field work in the mountains of Brazil.

 The first quotes are from Chase’s chronicle of her excursion to Serra do Caparaó (November 19, 1929).  During the trip, the trail and overnight camping were made more difficult by persistent rain.

 “We were to camp in at a cave. We reached it about 4:30. It looked very inviting at first, being dry, until the guide commented on the pulgas (fleas) then I saw that the dusty earth was alive. I got back into the rain and began to collect while the guide burned dry palm leaves over the ground. I went back and warned Mrs. M as they came up. It was raining hard and I supposed we would have to stand the surviving fleas.”(page 7)

 “Serra de Gramina [sic] which I climbed with the Rolfs was the only rain forest I had seen before. Everything was covered with ferns, from little filmies(?) to tree ferns. It was wonderfully lovely in spite of the discomfort and weariness. The trail had not been used for two years, the guide said, and he had to do a lot of cutting.” (page 9)

 

SIA2012-3336a. Photograph taken by Mary Agnes Chase, while climbing Itatiáia in Brazil.

Chase goes on to describe preparations for the trip up Caparaó, and her struggles to find local guides and staff, recounting the men who refused to assist, stating their belief that if the trip was difficult for men they knew, it would be impossible for women. Chase was a woman of unusual energy and endurance. Despite being in her fifties at the time of her ascent, she climbed several of Brazil’s peaks during her field work throughout the decade. The field work proved challenging, but she persevered with good humor, as shown in the recounting below when she and a female participant reached one the campsites during the climb.

 “We struggled out of the bamboo and saw the men resting on the camps. I shouted for joy and old Antonio grinned and said something about “muito(?) courageus” for senhoras to make that ascent. He said no women had ever done it before and very few men.” (page 11)

 The last quote I’d like to share exemplifies the humor that was typical of Chase. It was taken from Chase’s letter to A.S. Hitchcock, from Brazil in December 21, 1929:

“The summit was almost as rough and finding nothing up there I hadn’t found climbing up I stepped and slid downward to the more open campo near the base, getting in a drop on saccharoides group, not saccharoides itself and a few other things. Knowing my capacity for getting lost I told myself I could not get lost this time with the mountains ridge on one hand and river on the other.”

 Publications about Mary Agnes Chase over the decades have often focused on her dedication to her work, sometimes overshadowing her many other qualities and interests. Late in her life a story was commonly written in several articles about her. The story said that when meeting new people, she would ask "and what grasses do you work on?" If the person didn’t answer in the affirmative, the conversation came to an abrupt end. Chase’s ability to laugh at herself sharply contradicts the characterization of Chase as a serious woman only interested in her botanical specimens. It is this and many other qualities that make Chase a fascinating subject.

To see more of Chase’s images, see her Flickr set.

 Sherwood, John. (January 12, 1977). “Notes on Gentle People and Their Honest Love. “ The Washington Star.

 National Museum of Natural History. (1978). The Magnificent Foragers :  Smithsonian Explorations in the Natural Sciences.  Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC. p. 24.

Will it Bend?

By Anna Friedman, Conservator, Field Book Project

My latest treatment was on Louis Forniquet Henderson’s journal from 1895. Over the decades, the original binding on Henderson’s journal began to deteriorate and was sent to be library bound, which provided the notes a very sturdy structure for sitting on a library shelf.

I have no way of knowing when in their 117 year history these volumes were rebound, but when these volumes came to the SIA conservation lab this month, their 117 year old paper had become brittle, and the stiff and sturdy library bindings enclosing them were not flexible, causing the brittle pages to crack when trying to open the book.

Photo of Henderson Library Bound Journal Before Treatment (closed)

Book bindings are a balance between support and flexibility. Bindings need to be strong enough to keep the pages protected, and flexible enough to allow the pages to open. On one side of the spectrum are Asian style bindings, where extremely flexible long-fiber papers are tightly bound with sewing that stabs through the spine edge of the volume, immobilizing the spine of the book entirely. Asian style bindings have zero flexibility in the spine, which is balanced by the flexibility of the paper. That combination allows the Asian style bindings to open. On the opposite end of the spectrum from Asian style bindings are children’s board books where the only thing that flexes is the binding, as the board “pages” do not bend at all.

Here in the United States, we are more familiar with Western-style “codex” bindings. These books have folded groups of pages that are sewn through the fold, the spines coated with adhesive and layers of cloth or paper, and are protected by hard covers. Often, modern bindings are now adhesive bound instead of sewn, but the stresses on the spines of codex bindings are similar. In western bindings, the stress and flexibility are more equally shared between the binding and the pages, as western papers are less flexible than Asian papers, but the spines of western bindings are considerably more flexible than their Asian counterparts.

Photo of Henderson 1895 Open before treatment

In this case, the paper in the journal had become incredibly brittle since it had been rebound. The pages would crack in the middle when even gentle pressure was applied to them. The library binding was too strong and too inflexible to open without causing too much stress on the brittle pages. In addition, there was no way to digitize the bound journal without destroying the brittle pages.

In general, I prefer to retain bound material in a binding, and unbound archival material unbound, so that when a researcher approaches the object, he or she will get the same feeling using the book or file as the original owner did when creating it. In this case, the intellectual content of the manuscript was so much more important than the unremarkable library binding, that it was an easy decision to disbind the journal. I retained the spine label and covers from the library binding as an indication to future users that it had at one point been library bound.

Photo Henderson 1895 Journal After Treatment flat pages

Now that the Journal has been disbound, the pages do not have to bend, and despite being brittle, the paper can be laid flat for digitization. Eventually, having a digital copy of the original will allow many more people to access Henderson’s Journal than would have been able to read the crumbling pages of the original.

Photo of Henderson 1895 Journal in box with spine label.

On The Bigger Picture...

Smithsonian Institution Pre Doctoral Fellow, Samantha Muka, shares how three scientists logbooks offered a glimpse into the research activities of the Bureau of Fisheries Division of Inquiry in her article "The Broad Mission of the Division of Inquiry" on The Bigger Picture.

New Staff Member Joins the Field Book Project

 

The Field Book Project welcomes back Emily Hunter, one of our summer 2011 interns, as a full time Cataloger.  This summer Emily cataloged 382 field books related to the Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program, on which her article "Life in the Field: a Reflection on Cataloging Field Notes in the Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program" and Flickr set are based. 

Emily holds an MLS from the University of Maryland's iSchool and a BA in Visual Arts and American Studies from University of Maryland Baltimore County.

New Burgess Shale Website

Together the Royal Ontario Museum and Parks Canada have created a spectacular website about the Burgess Shale or Les schistes de Burgess.  The English and French website contains high quality still and moving images of this amazing paleontological site located in Yoho National Park, part of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site.  As you will read later, the Smithsonian played a small role in contributing to this project. 

   

Approximately a half billion years old, the Burgess Shale is a Cambrian period formation and one of the earliest fossil beds in which soft-bodied fossils of animals and algae are preserved.  The new website documents over 125 years of discoveries including current research by the Royal Ontario Museum Burgess Shale Expeditions through a number of dynamic features. 

• History page discusses the first discovery and subsequent discoveries most notably by Charles Walcott, Percy Raymond, the Geological Survey of Canada, and ongoing efforts by the Royal Ontario Museum.
• Science page provides information about a number of topics including the Cambrian explosion, geology of the Burgess Shale, and videos depicting various aspects field work currently taking place.
• Virtual Sea Odyssey and Fossil Gallery contain photographs and digital animations of fossils.

In addition to the features outlined above, the website also includes links to resources and information about Parks Canada.

Sarah Stauderman, Principal Investigator of the Field Book Project’s conservation efforts, is acknowledged on the Burgess Shale website credits page for her assistance with Smithsonian archival materials related to Charles Walcott. 

The Smithsonian Institution maintains a substantial collection of photographic and other materials related to Walcott, including 42 field books housed within the Smithsonian Institution Archives Record Unit 7004, all of which have been cataloged by the Field Book Project.  Although Smithsonian field books won't be available on the Burgess Shale website,the field books do provide rich information for further understanding the abundant information, media tools and resources available on the Burgess Shale website.

See an image from Charles Walcott's excavation of the Burgess Shale on The Bigger Picture.

More about the Charles Walcott field notes

Charles Walcott’s field books at the Smithsonian Institution Archives range more than fifty years (1879-1940).  Some of his early field notes were composed in a journal style, including general observations, daily work completed, sketches of landscapes, as well as geological information relating to the surveys he completed for the United States Geological Survey.  Most of the field notes in his collection contain few general observations and more commonly consist of geological sections, descriptions, and observations of fossils seen, and pertinent details about surrounding vegetation and environment.  Often his notes were on loose sheets of note paper removed from their original notebook and separated by entry.  

By the time he studied the Burgess shale in British Columbia, Walcott’s field note entries consisted of several pages clearly listing location and describing observed sections, with height of each layer, its composition, color, texture, other characteristics, as well as presence of fossils.   See examples of Walcott’s field notes below.

         

Field notes of Charles D. Walcott, August 6, 1909, describing of geological formation of
Moraine Lake at Valley of the Ten Peaks, Banff National Park, Canada.

An Archivist's Tour, Part Two: The Field Book Project

As you may have read in our November 11th post, archivist and blogger Deb Schiff recently visited a number of departments at the Smithsonian and is sharing her experience on her archives and cultural heritage blog, Here and There.  She has just posted about the portion of her tour that involved learning about the Field Book Project and some of the field book gems in the Department of Botany.  You can read the full post here: http://hereandthere123.blogspot.com/2011/11/visit-with-carolyn-sheffield-project.html.

 

Waldo Schmitt on Flickr

By Lesley Parilla, Field Book Project

SIA2012-0662a. Participant sitting with a penguin on the Palmer Peninsula, Antarctica c.1962.

The fourth of the Field Book Project’s quarterly Flickr sets is now available here on Flickr’s The Commons. This set of images comes from the collection of Invertebrate Zoologist Waldo Schmitt. They were chosen primarily to show the geographical and chronological breadth of field work it represents. These images depict collecting for the Invertebrate Zoology department of the National Museum Natural History from 1939-1963, and relate to staff, specimens collected, and habitats in French Polynesia, Antarctica, Alaska, and Greenland.

SIA2012-0672a. Example of catch from gill netting hoisted on the vessel Tondeleyo, September, 19, 1940, during Alaska King Crab Investigation.

Most of these images are from Waldo Schmitt’s time in the Society Islands of French Polynesia, the coast of Alaska studying Alaska King Crab, and the Palmer Peninsula of Antarctica. Additionally, they depict a variety of activities beyond the specimen collecting. The portrait of the Smithsonian-Bredin Expedition crew and the snapshot of dancers on the ship eating lobster (some of which were originally purchased to be specimens), for example, relate to stories in Schmitt’s diaries and illustrate the lighter moments in the field.

Many of these images show the results and different methods of specimen collecting. Dredging, scuba diving, gill netting, and even rotenone sampling were all used. The image above shows collecting with commercial methods while investigating the Alaska King Crab industry in Alaska. The flickr set also has images of scuba divers in Antarctic waters, and collecting to show diversity of marine life in the reefs of the Society Islands.

SIA2012-0668a. C. Ray and large jellyfish, during underwater specimen collecting near Palmer Peninsula, Antarctica, c. 1962.

 Because Waldo Schmitt was the Curator of the Invertebrate Zoology department, his collection doesn’t just represent his own field work but also that of others who collected for the department under his direction. For this reason, Schmitt’s collection contains images from Robert Bartlett’s expeditions to Greenland in the 1930’s, some of which are included in the Flickr set. Photographs show how his crew collected and prepared invertebrate and botanical specimens, as well as visually documented habitats, as seen below with the crewman filming passing ice bergs.

SIA2012-0657. Crew member shooting footage of ice berg off the bow of the ship, Greenland, 1939.

We hope flickr users will learn about the diversity of Schmitt’s collection through these images.

Joint Presentation at MCN by the Field Book Project, Biodiversity Heritage Library, and California Academy of Sciences

Field Book Project Project Manager, Carolyn Sheffield, along with Becky Morin and Danielle Castronovo of the California Academy of Sciences, will presentYelling Across the Divide: New Contexts for Using Library, Archival, and Museum Collections on Saturday, November 19, 2011 at the MCN conference in Atlanta, Georgia.

Yelling Across the Divide will discuss how three separate projects--Smithsonian Field Book Project, Biodivesrity Heritage Library (BHL), and Connecting Content (California Academy of Sciences)--are collaborating to fulfill intersecting goals of improving access to natural history collections. 

An Archivist's Tour of Smithsonian Institution Archives

As a collaborative project between the Smithsonian Institution Archives (SIA) and the National Museum of Natural History's Department of Botany, we're always excited to share fun news about either.  Earlier this week, the SIA was highlighted on the archives and cultural heritage blog, Here and There. You can read the full post and learn about some of the treasures that Deb Schiff, archivist and blogger, saw on her recent visit to SIA: http://hereandthere123.blogspot.com/2011/11/tour-of-smithsonian-institution.html.

This post will be part of a series detailing Schiff's tours of various departments at the Smithsonian including an upcoming post on field books that we'll be sure to share with you here as well!